


Day Three

by infinite_regress



Series: Home is where. . . [2]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Happily Ever After, Hybrid Family, Romance, Sweetness, log cabins and hummingbirds, whouffaldi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-29 02:25:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7666705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/infinite_regress/pseuds/infinite_regress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Whouffaldi one shot. </p><p>Clara and the Doctor on the third day after the birth of their baby. Starts with hormone-fuelled tears, ends with happiness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Day Three

**Author's Note:**

> Follows on from "Falling" and "Blessed"
> 
> More musings from a long journey.

On the third day after Leo was born, Clara cried. Stomach-churning, chest-heaving, sobs escaped her lips and burning tears spilled down her cheeks. Her nose ran.

She gripped the necklace the Doctor had given her all those months ago on the day everything changed between them, and took a deep breath. Things would be okay. Once she knew about the baby her life changed course.  She made different choices. Became less reckless. She shuddered to think about how things might have ended up if she’d carried on the way she had been going. There’s nothing like knowing there is a new life growing inside you to make you avoid trouble and take care. There was no need for these tears.

The necklace pulsed between her fingers and she tried to focus on it. It had been two swirls of blues and browns against white when he gave it to her. Now a third delicate twist, almost too fine to see, spiralled between the two thicker strands. One moment the new strand looked blue and the next it seemed brown. She let the necklace fall to her chest.

They were safe here. This cabin, so carefully constructed by the Doctor, was a refuge, hidden away in a sweet spot between the woods and the waterfall, on a planet a billion light years from trouble. There were no Time Lords to hound them here, and no prophecy hung over them. Just Clara Oswald, the Doctor and their new born son. Leo was perfect. He lay, swaddled in white and nestled in his father’s cot, sleeping peacefully. So why did she feel so conflicted?

She looked up as the Doctor walked across the cabin. He stopped opposite her and placed a hand on the cot, glanced down at Leo, then up at her. He must think her a mess with her hair unbrushed and her face red with tears.  

He smiled and gently said, “Day three?”

“Day three?” Did this have some mystical Gallifreyan symbolism? Was there a hidden genetic kickback of giving birth to a hybrid child? She sniffed. “What does that mean? It’s bad, isn’t it.”

He laughed softly, stepped around the cot and put his arms across her shoulders.

“By day three all the pregnancy hormones are gone from your system. Tears result. Same the universe over, I suspect, give or take a few days. It means you probably feel happy and sad all at once.”

She sniffed again. He’d done this before, of course. Dad skills. And thank God. It was a good job one of them had a clue what to do next. She swallowed and tried a smile. “Your emotional intelligence quotient’s shot up.”

He waved the compliment away. “I had a good teacher. Two emotions at once, no sweat.”

She buried her face in his shirt and laughed. The laugh dissolved into sobs.

He wiped a tear from her cheek. “It’s perfectly normal. It will pass.” He kissed her forehead. “A walk might help.”

She nodded, although the thought of stepping outside with their new-born was daunting.

He grabbed the sling that was stowed under the cot. He held up the tangle of straps with a fabric pouch attached, and frowned comically through the straps at her.

“Used that before?” she said sceptically.   

“Oh yes. I remember how it works.”

_Twenty minutes later_

The Doctor looked up as Clara returned, fully dressed, pulling a brush through her hair. She said, “Surely that bit goes over your shoulder, not around your waist.”

He frowned. Perhaps she was right. It had been a long time since he’d used the baby-sling. He sighed and undid it for the third time, turned it around and refastened it. He gave it a firm tug. All secure.

“That looks more like it,” she said. She picked Leo up tentatively, frowned, and then slid him awkwardly into the sling. He continued to sleep peacefully, oblivious to his parents fussing and fumbling. “Okay.” She looked up, still a little red-eyed. “I think we’re ready.”

They stepped out of the cabin into the warm clear air in late afternoon sun. They paused on the porch.

He threaded her fingers through hers. “It’s so peaceful,” she said, as she took a deep breath of the mountain air. He glanced at her. This was probably what she needed after three days inside. Things had gone remarkable smoothly and she was recovering well considering the lack of medical assistance and pain relief. Perhaps the fresh air would chase away the day-three blues.  

The little bird that had often watched him as he built the cabin fluttered down onto the window sill. It seemed blue the first time he saw it. But as he looked closer he saw the feathers were flecked with other colours too, iridescent greens and shades of blue, azure through to what he like to call TARDIS blue. It shimmered as it hopped from the window sill down onto the deck and stopped in a pool of sunlight. The bird twitched its long beak this way and that. It looked intently in their direction for a few moments, before it warbled a few notes and then flew away.

Clara let out a deep breath. “I’m sorry,” she said, stumbling the words out in a rush. “I’m sorry my life is so small when yours is forever.”

He gripped her hand. “In my hearts and in my soul, you are forever. We are forever.” He pointed up the mountain.  “See the waterfall? When it’s washed away this mountain I’ll remember you and still love you. _That_ makes me happy.”  

He looked down at their baby, snuggled peacefully against his chest. “And anyway, I’ve discovered something. Do you know what else is special about this place?”  

She shook her head.

“The atmospheric conditions and the unique mineral content of the water will augment the human lifespan.”

“What! Really?

He nodded. “As long as we spend the same amount of time here as we do anywhere else, we could be together for a very long time.”

“How long?”

He looked at her sideways. “At least two hundred and forty years. That’s enough to fill one lifetime, don’t you think?”

Ideas tumbled from her. Things that had been bothering her, probably. “So we could visit my dad and my gran? Take Leo to play with other kids? So he won’t grow up on his own?” Her eyes lit up.

“We’ll need to be careful. Stay here while he is young, keep a low profile when we travel.” A flock of the blue-green birds swooped overhead, and they both watched for a moment.

He put his hand on Clara’s shoulder. “But he doesn’t have to be alone. How about giving him brothers and sisters? We can home school them here, between us. I’m science, you’re arts. When they’re older they can choose any university in the universe.”  He waved his hand expensively across the fields.

She laughed, a real joyful laugh. She turned her face to the mountain. “I’ll take that,” she said and smiled back at him. Then she frowned slightly and narrowed her eyes. “But really, do you mean you would spend all of this lifetime with me?”

He nodded. A sad smile played on his lips, although he tried to hide it. The thought of ever losing her was hell. When eternity had filled the canvas of time with a million stars that shone brightly and then faded, he would still love her. He shook his head and pushed thoughts of eternity away. He could give her this lifetime.   

She stood on tiptoes and kissed the side of his mouth. “Happy and sad all at once?”

She knew him so well. He pulled her closer with Leo nestled between them. “I don’t want to think about losing you right now. Right now we have a cabin by a waterfall on a mountain side, and this little one.” He craned his neck to press a light kiss to the top of Leo’s head, and then smiled at Clara. He grasped her hand and they walked together across grass and down to the waterfall.  “The adventure’s still ahead of us, years of it,” he said. “Today, Clara Oswald, is just day three.”


End file.
